Kisenosato Yutaka

Kisenosato Yutaka (Japanese: 稀勢の里 寛, Hepburn: Kisenosato Yutaka) born July 3, 1986, as Yutaka Hagiwara (萩原 寛, Hagiwara Yutaka) is a Japanese former professional sumo wrestler from Ibaraki. He made his professional debut in 2002 and reached the top makuuchi division in 2004 at the age of just 18. After many years in the junior san'yaku ranks, he reached the second highest rank of ōzeki in January 2012. He earned three kinboshi or gold stars by defeating yokozuna in his career leading up to ōzeki and nine special prizes. He scored more than 20 double-digit winning records at the ōzeki rank. In 2016, he secured the most wins in the calendar year, the first wrestler to do so without winning a tournament in that year.

After being a runner-up in a tournament on twelve occasions, he broke through at the January 2017 tournament, winning his first top division championship or yūshō with a 14–1 record and subsequently was promoted to yokozuna, the first Japanese-born wrestler to reach sumo's highest rank since Wakanohana in 1998. He had been a candidate four times previously (July 2013, January 2014, July 2016 and September 2016), but in each case, he failed to achieve the necessary number of wins. Kisenosato won his first tournament as a yokozuna in March 2017, but suffered a left chest muscle injury in the process and was not able to complete another tournament until September 2018. His eight straight missed tournaments were a record for a yokozuna. In January 2019, he announced his retirement from sumo. He is now an elder of the Japan Sumo Association under the name of Nishonoseki Yutaka (二所ノ関 寛).